New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-09-04
SUNDAY EDITION.
SEPT. 4, 1887.

NIT IT, as their safety required, they did not in-
TEND to bivouac there. About noon that day Q
nerce storm was seen to break over the mountain.
Up 70 p m: the six were still visible through
Che telescopes; they had then reached the HOch.
irm, the point at which the perpendicular ascent
10 the topmost point begins. From that time q
log enveloped them, and they were seen no more
awe. The details Of what subsc quently happened
10 them VIII never be known, unless by some
chance notebook or other memorandum from
some Of them Is found. Three days later
the provisions they had ordered deposited to
await them In the Concordia hut were found un-
touched.
Inquiry was at once made actively by telegraph,
and the conclusion reached that they were still
somewhere In the mountains. Parties of guides
were sent out both from the north and south
sides; the former followed the party's tracks in
the snow clear to TIE highest peak; they had in
deed reached their goal, but for some reason had
been obliged to remain over night on that bleak
clih. They had erected wall of stones as tenn
porary shelter from the gale which must have
swept over them and in the morning had started
to descend leaving behind them, whether by in
tention or accident, few fragments of provisions
-FOUR playing cards and a handkerchief containing
dead marmot, which they had no doubt found
on their way up Following their tracks from
that point downward, the latter were found to
lead along the edge Of a cliff overlooking the
Aletch glacier, 600 feet below The unfortunate
ing light, had mistaken the path. gone too far to
the left and all gone over the prccpice together.
AS the guides stood Observing the spot where ths
footsteps ended they heard voices on the glacier
below and hailed them They proved to be those
OF the other guides, who Lad come up from the
southern, or Wallis, side OF the mountain They
cried out, I'VE have found them' what all
six Of themp" inquired the ones above. "Yes,"
was the answer. Thereupon two of the guides on
tic summit, weary as they were-their names are
Fritz Steiner and Hans Graf, OF Lauterbrmnen
and no praise Is too great for them Immediately
set out to descend to the valley and bear tho
sad news to the waiting parents, brothers and
friends below They accomplished the extraOr.
binary feat OF descending via the Southwest Graf
ana the ROththal hut, path which no man has
hitherto traversed, in little over five hours an
achievement which is spoken of here as one that
would hardly have been credible had they not
been seen with the telescope at q. m. on the
Jungfrau summit and little after D. m. at
their destination in the valley below"
The removal of the six corpses to the valley
was no easy matter; 1t required the assistance OF
twenty-five guides to bring them down. The in
quest disclosed that they were all lying near one
another, that the rope by which they had been
bound together had broken; that all of them had
sustained fractures OF the skull and lower ex-
tremlties, and that their watches had stopped at
about a. IN. These particulars are all that will
ever be known Of this terrible tragedy, unless
Sumo cnancc snail denver up notebook kept by
ono Of the party. That DR.. Wettstein kept notes
during the tour is considered certain, and gem
erai instructions to search for such have been
communicated to all the Jungfrau guides. Five
OF the bodies were brought to Zurich and placed
side by side In the cemetery overlooking the
lake. The remains of the SIXTH young Bider, were
inferred by his family ct Berne.
One would suppose that the grief and horror
aroused by this occurrence would serve to deter
tourists from Alpine climbing. But strange t.
say 1t has had the contrary effect and rumor says
that since the catastrophe both the valleys at
Lauterbrunnen and at Zcrmatt arc beset with
tourists anxious TO attempt the dangerous ascent
As q local paTcr poetlcally observes. there seems
to be mountain Lorele cnshrined the jung
frau summit. and ever becltomng her worshippers
to their death. 1t seems to be high time that
stringent measures were adopted not only by local
authorities but by the Swiss Federal Government
TO put an efectual stop TO this wanton annual
sacrifice Of valuable lives.